Short time in Hong Kong

I had mixed feelings about visiting Hong Kong. It seems like another ritzy place without a deep culture or much that I’d enjoy. Plus, it’s quite expensive. However, it also seems like a must-visit before leaving Asia.

I arrived and took the airport express train into the downtown area and then the subway to my hostel.

After traveling through the night, I was pretty hungry and looked up the nearest thing on Happy Cow for vegetarian restaurants. I got a good laugh out of this potatoes in sour emotions option on the menu.

After lunch, I set out to walk around the city and see a few things, since I basically just had 1 day to explore.

I made my way to the world’s longest set of outdoor escalators, which was pretty interesting and took me past some great street art.



When exiting, I laughed SUPER HARD at this billboard from the Hong Kong business alliance celebrating the birthday of the communist party in China. Yeah right! Someone made them put that up. Most of Hong Kong holds the “we aren’t China” mindset and wants independence.

I had a tip from a friend to take the bus up to the top of Victoria Peak (instead of the expensive/long line option of the cable car), so I made my way to that and got one of the last seats. Amazing views on the way up!

E had also mentioned a great, less-crowded place to view the sunset and see the city, so I followed his description and avoided the tourist lookout spot on top of the mall.

The views up here are definitely amazing.

For anyone looking, follow these to the path to the alternate viewing spot!

After watching the sun go down, I poked around the mall, realized it was a waste (though they have an interesting “void” on their map) and took the bus back down.

After dinner back at the same spot I had lunch, I walked through some smaller streets in the shopping area and had a good laugh when some Jamaicans tried to sell me marijuana. Some things just apply everywhere: taxis don’t stop for pedestrians, there will be a Chinese restaurant, death, taxes, and Jamaicans trying to sell you marijuana. Prove me wrong, because those have followed me around the world as truths. I had a good chuckle the rest of the night.

I tried to go to the Hong Kong version of the walk-of-fame (stars on the ground, like in Hollywood), but the area is closed, due to some nearby construction.

After spending some time along the river between Hong Kong island and Kowloon, I headed back to my hostel.

My hostel was on the 14th floor of an office building, which was really strange. It was a good hostel, but super odd setup. At least the elevator had cool signs.

Hong Kong was interesting for a day. I don’t think I’d want to spend more than 2-3 days here, or I’d get really bored (and run out of money).

I made my plans for taking the ferry over to Macau the next day and then went to bed.

Next up: Macau (“we’re also not China”)